'Red Hook Summer' review: a confused homecoming for Spike Lee

In the 23 (!) years since the fiery summer's day of "Do the
Right Thing," Spike Lee has had some moments of glory ("Malcolm X," "Inside
Man," "4 Little Girls") and inspiration ("Crooklyn," "Clockers," "25th Hour"), but
he's never been able to capture the same power, pop energy, passion and polemic
force as in that epochal film.

To see his newest work, "Red Hook Summer," is too see how
far Lee is from his impressive best. A
companion, of sorts, to "Right Thing," the film takes place in another Brooklyn
summer, with young Flik (Jules Brown) dropped by his Georgia-based mom to live
for a few months with her dad, Enoch (Clarke Peters), a storefront preacher and
boiler repairman in the local housing projects.

It's something of a coming-of-age story, with Flik learning
the harsh ropes of big city life alongside an almost-sweetheart (Toni Lysaith) and
avoiding the neighborhood tough guys (led by Nate Parker). Mookie the pizza man (Lee himself) makes an
appearance (illogically still delivering pies on foot from Sal's Famous, which
is nowhere near Red Hook), and there are other diversions, both filmic and
narrative which sometimes engage but more often eat up time frustratingly.

The highlights, without question, are Bishop Enoch's fiery,
musical, galvanizing sermons, which dot the story and are implicated with a
sensationalist turn in its final portion. Peters ("The Wire") is superb in these scenes,
without which "Red Hook Summer" would be a vague and somewhat desperate attempt
to rekindle past promises. Lee is, as
ever, a gifted image-maker, but his storytelling has gotten so lax over time as
to barely register. This isn't the
"Right Thing" in any sense.